ENTRECUERPOS

Modus Locus is excited to host this solo exhibit of oil paintings and drawings by Mercedes Llanos. 

Mercedes’ artistic interests have emerged from experiencing life as an immigrant, which led her to face issues of

identity and belonging from a young age. After living in the United States for many years, dissatisfied and searching for

answers, Mercedes moved back to her native country, Argentina. In an exploration of space and self, she backpacked through

different parts of South America and after one year, this nomadic living resulted in a strong desire towards grounding and

settlement that guided her back to the United States. Upon arrival, a traumatic bicycle accident, part of series of contradictory

and unprecedented events, left Mercedes speechless and ambivalent, but with a strange sense of clarity. Her latest body of work,

ENTRECUERPOS has emerged from those experiences, where she is observing surroundings more sensibly, and depicting

physical bodies in a blend of natural and imaginary settings.

The body of work in this exhibition has evolved to emphasize the importance of water. Mercedes is currently working

through the meaning of water as an unknown space, which gives us life and also takes it; a place for leisure, but also uncertainty.

Like a dream or a memory, water is an in-between space that divides and reflects; opaque and translucent, dense and weightless,

ordinary and also mystical. It is a body we perpetually inhabit, observant and absorbent.

Image: Situacion Critica, 2017, 42” x 32”, Oil on Canvas